Method and system for efficient routing of customer and contact e-mail messages

ABSTRACT

After a client or potential client accesses the web-site of a host organization and generates an e-mail to the organization, an e-mail sorting and routing system parses the meta-tags appended to the message to appropriately sort and route the message. The meta-tags specify the language of the client, i.e., the language in which the web-site was communicating with the client when the message was generated. The meta-tags also specify the topic, e.g. a product or service, about which the message was written. This information may be input by the client or ascertained from the content or purpose of the web-page from which the e-mail was generated. The messages are then sorted, first by language and then by topic. As a result, each message is quickly routed to a person qualified as to both language and subject matter who can respond to the client.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to the fields of the Internet orWorld Wide Web and electronic mail (“e-mail”). More specifically, thepresent invention relates to the field of web-sites used by companiesand other organizations to interface with and provide information toclients, customers, potential customers, patrons, etc. The presentinvention provides a novel system and method for routing e-mail messagesgenerated by clients using an organization's web-site so that themessage can be responded to quickly in the appropriate language and bysomeone knowledgeable in the area regarding the client's query.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Much has been written about the revolutions in communication andbusiness caused by the Internet and the World Wide Web (the “Web”). TheInternet and Web make it possible for people around the world to rapidlyand inexpensively send messages and access information on almost anytopic.

[0003] Using an e-mail system, a user can access the Internet, type amessage and an address and have that message delivered almost instantlyto the recipient's e-mail system anywhere in the world. Digitaldocuments, pictures, sound recordings, spread sheets, video and evencomputer programs can be attached to an e-mail message and sent to thecomputer of a designated recipient. Consequently, e-mail provides anincredible medium in which information can be communicated.

[0004] In addition to its private uses, e-mail has an equal or greateruse in supporting commercial communication. Employees and officerswithin a business organization may use e-mail to communicate with eachother in completing their tasks. Similarly, e-mail may be used tocommunicate with people at other business organizations to, for example,negotiate contracts, place orders, request information, etc.

[0005] Business and other organizations also use e-mail to communicatewith clients, customers, potential clients, patrons, potential patrons,etc. (referred to hereinafter collectively as “clients”). Business andother organizations may collect or purchase the e-mail addresses ofclients so that e-mail messages can be provided to those clients. Suchmessages may, for example, advise the client of new products or servicesbeing offered, advise the client of reductions in price or other specialdeals regarding the organization's products and services, requestinformation from or about the client, or educate the client about theorganization and/or its products or services.

[0006] Businesses and other organizations can also provide suchinformation to clients through a web-site on the Web. At a typicalweb-site, the client may access information about the organization, itsproducts or services, its personnel, job opportunities, its policies,etc. However, it is a challenge to anticipate all the questions clientswill have and organize the information on a web-site so that theinformation the client desires is readily locatable. If the web-sitefails to contain the information desired, or the client cannot find theinformation on the web-site, an opportunity to develop a relationshipwith that client will be lost.

[0007] Consequently, the web-sites of many businesses and otherorganizations provide the capability to generate and send e-mailmessages to the organization. Thus, if the client using the web-site isunable to obtain the information he or she desires from the web-site,that client can generate an e-mail message to the organizationrequesting the specific information the client requires. Theorganization then has the opportunity to respond and foster itsrelationship with that client.

[0008] While incredibly valuable and useful to business and otherorganizations, this mechanism of interfacing with clients is complicatedby the world-wide nature of the Web. Clients may be accessing theorganization's web-sites and generating e-mail messages in manylanguages around the world. Consequently, to provide adequate customerservice, the organization must have some means of responding to eachclient in that client's language and with the information required.

[0009] Consequently, there is a need in the art for a system and methodof effectively routing e-mail messages generated by clients at anorganization's web5 site so that the client can be efficiently respondedto in his or her own language and by an agent of the organizationknowledgeable about the product, service or other aspect of theorganization about which the client has written.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] The present invention provides a system and method of effectivelyrouting e-mail messages generated by clients at an organization'sweb-site so that the client can be efficiently responded to in his orher own language and by an agent of the organization knowledgeable aboutthe product, service or other aspect of the organization about which theclient has written. Additional advantages and novel features of theinvention will be set forth in the description which follows or may belearned by those skilled in the art through reading these materials orpracticing the invention.

[0011] The present invention may be embodied and described as an e-mailsorting and routing system for e-mail messages generated through aweb-site or web-sites operated by a host organization. The systemincludes a web server or servers for providing a web-site or web-sitesat which clients generate e-mail messages to the host organization; andat least one response server for sorting the e-mail messages. The e-mailmessages are sorted first by language and then by topic.

[0012] Preferably, the web-site appends meta-tags to each e-mail messageas it is generated. The meta-tags identify a language and topic of thatmessage. Consequently, the response server can sort the e-mail messagesusing the meta-tags. Preferably, all messages generated at the web-siteor web-sites are sent to a global mail box for sorting. Preferably, theglobal mail box operates according to Post Office Protocol 3.

[0013] The system further includes a number of language-specific mailboxes into which the e-mail messages are sorted according to language.The system also includes a number of topic-specific mail boxes intowhich the e-mail messages are sorted according to topic. Eachlanguage-specific mail box is associated with a separate correspondingset of topic-specific mail boxes.

[0014] A plurality of agent user interfaces, each of which is associatedwith a topic-specific mail box, are also provided. A user qualified asto language and topic uses one of these interfaces to access messages inthe associated topic-specific mail box and respond to the clientappropriately.

[0015] The present invention also encompasses the methods of making andoperating the system described above. For example, the present inventionencompasses a method of sorting and routing e-mail messages generatedthrough a web-site or web-sites operated by a host organization at whichclients generate e-mail messages to the host organization. The method isperformed by sorting the e-mail messages by language; and subsequentlysorting the e-mail messages by topic.

[0016] The present invention also encompasses the computer-readableinstructions or software for implementing the system and methoddescribed above. Specifically, the present invention encompasses a setof computer-readable instructions recorded in a medium for storingcomputer-readable instructions, where the instructions causing acomputer system to sort and route e-mail messages generated through aweb-site or web-sites operated by a host organization at which clientsgenerate e-mail messages to the host organization. Specifically, theinstructions cause the computer system to sort the e-mail messages bylanguage; and subsequently, sort the e-mail messages by topic.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The accompanying drawings illustrate the present invention andare a part of the specification. Together with the followingdescription, the drawings demonstrate and explain the principles of thepresent invention.

[0018]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an e-mail generating and routingsystem using an organization's web-sites according to the presentinvention.

[0019]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of more of the system illustrated inFIG. 1.

[0020]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the method of the presentinvention for efficiently routing client e-mail messages.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] Using the drawings, the preferred embodiments of the presentinvention will now be explained.

[0022] As shown in FIG. 1, the Internet (101) provides communicationbetween a client's computer system (103) and an organization's webservers (102 a, 102 b). As used herein, the term “host organization”will refer to the organization that provides the web server(s) (102 a,102 b) used by a client to generate an e-mail message to thatorganization. The host organization may be any type of organization, forexample, a business, professional, charitable, social or otherorganization, whether commercial or not-for-profit.

[0023] Using his or her computer (103), which is connected to theInternet (101), a user can input an appropriate Universal ResourceLocator (URL) to access a web-site of the organization. Inputting theURL sends a request to the web server specified by that URL to transmita file, i.e., a page of the organization's web-site, back to therequesting computer (103). Web pages are typically in Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML) and are transmitted in response to a request from a useraccording to Internet Protocol (IP).

[0024] As shown in FIG. 1, an organization may have multiple servers(102 a, 102 b) connected to the Internet (101). These servers (102 a,102 b) may have the same or different URLs. Each server (102) may bededicated to providing a web-site in a particular language, such asEnglish, Spanish or Japanese. Consequently, speakers of that languagewill be directed to access that server when seeking to communicate withthe host organization.

[0025] When the requesting computer (103) receives the web-page file,browser software running on the computer (103) into which the URL wasentered, is used to display the web-page. As described above, the pagesof the web-site can be used to provide a wealth of information to theuser. Additionally, the user can enter information into fields in thedisplayed web page and return that information to the organization'sservers (102 a, 102 b). Specifically, the user can fill out a form andtransmit the entered information to the organization as an e-mailmessage.

[0026] In FIG. 1, the user (103) accesses the web-site of the hostorganization by communicating via the Internet (101) with the webserver(s) (102 a, 102 b) of the organization. If the user does not findthe information he or she is looking for or wishes more directcommunication with the organization, the web-pages of the organizationwill include an e-mail form where the user can enter a comment orquestion and send that message to the organization as an e-mail message.The user may be able to direct the e-mail to select a particular personor department within the organization to which the message will be sent.

[0027] If the message is not directed to a particular person, the webpage file that allows the user to generate the message will direct themessage to a global e-mail box (104). This global box (104) may beresident on the same server (102 a or 102 b) that is providing theweb-page file, or may be another server connected to the Internet (104).

[0028] Preferably, the global e-mail box (104) is a POP3 box. POP isshort for Post Office Protocol which is a standard protocol in theInternet environment for handling e-mail messages. POP3 is the third andlatest version of the POP standard. Alternatively, the global e-mail box(104) may operate according to some other protocol, such as InternetMessage (or Mail) Access Protocol (“IMAP”).

[0029] The global e-mail box (104) may be resident on or accessed by ane-mail system response server (105). It is the purpose of this server(105) to sort the e-mail messages according to the language in whichthey are written. A separate mail box, preferably resident on theresponse server (105), is provided to receive those e-mail messagesreceived in a particular language. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1,the e-mail messages may be sorted among an English mailbox (110), aFrench mailbox (111), a Swedish mailbox (112), a German mailbox (113), aSpanish mailbox (114) and a Japanese mailbox (115).

[0030] In order for the user to interact with a web-page, that web-pagemust be in a language understood by the user. Consequently, anorganization provide a web-page which is to be used and understood byusers who speak multiple languages has several options for providingsuch multi-lingual web-pages. One option is to provide a number ofdifferent web-sites, each having its own URL, where each web-site is ina specific language. Consequently, users who speak that language will bedirected to that particular web-site. In another option, theorganization may have a first page to the web-site which requests thatthe user recognize and identify his or her preferred language. Afterthis selection is made, the user is linked to a new web-site or isprovided with a version of the current web-site which is in thespecified language.

[0031] As a result, when a user fills out an e-mail form at theorganization's web-site, the web server (102 a, 102 b) will becommunicating with the user in a particular language that the userpresumably understands and in which the users will presumably draft thee-mail being sent to the organization. An indicator of this language isappended to the e-mail message that is sent to the global box (104) as ameta-tag.

[0032] Consequently, when the response server (105) accesses the e-mailmessages received in the global mail box (104), the server (105) parsesthe meta-tags associated with the message to find the meta-tag thatspecifies the language in which the message was written. The message isthen allocated to the appropriate mail box (110-115) in accordance withthe language specified by the language meta-tag.

[0033] In this way, the messages from clients can be automaticallyrouted to someone within the organization who speaks the client'slanguage. This greatly enhances the organization's response to theclient and the goodwill generated with the client as a result of theorganization's response.

[0034]FIG. 2 illustrates a second tier of the e-mail sorting system ofthe present invention. Many organizations may be so large and diversethat the products and services offered by the organization are wellunderstood by only a fraction of the personnel in the organization.Consequently, in order to provide an adequate response to a client'squery, it may be necessary to get the client's query to an agent of theorganization who has been particularly designated due to knowledge,training or experience as qualified to respond to client queriesregarding a particular product, service or aspect of the organization.

[0035] This being the case, the web-site with an e-mail form which isfilled out by a user to generate an e-mail to the organization may havesome means of automatically identifying the product, service or aspectof the organization about which the client is inquiring. For example,the web-site may be organized such that different e-mail forms areaccessed in response to a client's indication of the topic, product orservice about which he or she wishes to inquire. Alternatively, theremay be a field in the e-mail form having, for example, a pull-down menuor radio button group, that has the user specify a product, service ortopic about which the e-mail message is being written.

[0036] In either case, when the e-mail message is generated and sent tothe global box (104), a second meta-tag will be appended to the message.This meta-tag will specify the product, service or topic (hereinafter“topic”) about which the message is written. This meta-tag is generatedbased on, for example, the user's selection from a list of such topicsor based on the product-specific e-mail form used to generate themessage.

[0037] After the incoming e-mail messages have been sorted by language,the messages may be sorted by the topic to which each refers. In apreferred embodiment of the present invention, each of thelanguage-specific mail boxes (110-115) may reside on a particular server(120-125). That server (120-125) may access the e-mail messages andparse them for the topical meta-tag that specifies the product, serviceor topic about which the message was written. The server (120-125) thensorts the e-mail messages by topic and provides all those messages on aparticular topic to a designated mail box (e.g., 130-132).

[0038] By way of example, all the incoming client e-mail messages inEnglish about Topic “B” will be delivered by the system of the presentinvention to the mail box (131). All the incoming client e-mail messagesin Japanese about Topic “C” will be routed to the mail box (135).

[0039] After the incoming client e-mail messages have been so sorted, anagent of the host organization can efficiently access and respond to themessages. For example, an agent of the organization who speaks Japaneseand is qualified by training, experience or otherwise to respond toquestions on Topic “A” will access the messages in the mail box (133)using an agent user interface (143), i.e. the agent's workstation. Anagent user interface (140-145) is provided for each of thelanguage-specific and topic-specific mail boxes (130-135).

[0040] In this way, e-mail from a client is quickly and automaticallyrouted to an agent of the organization who is qualified by both commonlanguage and knowledge of the subject matter to respond to the client'sinquiry. Consequently, the response to the client is intelligible,accurate and prompt, thereby engendering goodwill and fostering apositive relationship with that client.

[0041] The preceding description has been presented only to illustrateand describe the invention. It is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to any precise form disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in light of the above teaching. For example,while a variety of servers have been discussed at the scale on which thepresent invention has been illustrated, it will be understood that allthe functions of the present invention could be performed by and on asingle computer or server.

[0042] The present invention encompasses the computer-readableinstructions inherent in the invention. As used herein, the term“computer-readable instructions” refers to software, irrespective of thecomputer language in which written and the level at which written (e.g.source code, object code, etc.). Computer-readable instructions alsorefers to firmware, i.e., any combination of software and hardwiredlogic.

[0043] Consequently, the present invention encompasses computer-readableinstructions, recorded in a medium for recording computer-readableinstructions, such as a floppy or hard disk, that cause a processor toperform the e-mail sorting and routing functions described above. Asused herein, the term “processor” may refer to any device the operationof which is controlled by computer-readable instructions. This mayinclude, but is not limited to, a host computer, a server, amicroprocessor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or thelike.

[0044]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the method and software of thepresent invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the user first accesses the hostorganization's web-site (300). The web-site may be language specific(301) so that the user must access the appropriate web-site in order tocommunicate in his or her language. If the web-site is not in a specificlanguage, the user may specify the interface language desired (302). Theweb server will then respond with web-pages prepared in the appropriatelanguage.

[0045] In either case, the user then accesses the web-page having a formand functionality therein for generating an e-mail message to the hostorganization (303). The user then completes the form and sends themessage (303).

[0046] The e-mail message is generated with the meta-tags describedabove (304). This preferably includes a language meta-tag identifyingthe language in which the web-site is communicating with the client anda topic meta-tag identifying the product, service or aspect of the hostorganization about which the client is writing (304).

[0047] The e-mail message is received in a global mail box (305). Usingthe meta-tags appended to the message, the message is sorted to alanguage-specific mail box according to the language in which it waswritten (306). Again using the meta-tags appended to the message, themessage is further sorted according to the topic about which the clientis inquiring (307).

[0048] An appropriate human agent of the host organization can thenaccess the sorted e-mail and respond to the client (308). As describedabove, the appropriate agent is one who can communicate in the client'slanguage, i.e., the language of the e-mail message, and who is qualifiedby training or experience to discuss the topic about which the clienthas inquired on behalf of the organization.

[0049] In a preferred embodiment, the present invention can beimplemented with the Kana™ e-mail system produced by KanaCommunications, Inc. However, the present invention can be implementedwith an e-mail system capable of intelligent message routing based ondefined rules. An example of such an e-mail system is the Microsoft®Outlook system.

[0050] The preferred embodiment was chosen and described in order tobest explain the principles of the invention and its practicalapplication. The preceding description is intended to enable othersskilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodimentsand with various modifications as are suited to is the particular usecontemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be definedby the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An e-mail sorting and routing system for e-mailmessages generated through a web-site or web-sites operated by a hostorganization, the system comprising: at least one web server forproviding a web-site or web-sites at which clients generate e-mailmessages to the host organization; and at least one response server forsorting said e-mail messages, wherein said e-mail messages are sortedfirst by language and then by topic.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe web-site appends meta-tags to each e-mail message, said meta-tagsidentifying a language and topic of that message, and wherein said atleast one response server sorts said e-mail messages using saidmeta-tags.
 3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a global mailbox to which all messages generated at said web-site or web-sites aresent for sorting.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein said global mail boxoperates according to Post Office Protocol
 3. 5. The system of claim 1,further comprising a plurality of language-specific mail boxes intowhich said e-mail messages are sorted according to language.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, further comprising a plurality of topic-specific mailboxes into which said e-mail messages are sorted according to topic,each language-specific mail box being associated with a separatecorresponding set of topic-specific mail boxes.
 7. The system of claim6, further comprising a plurality of agent user interfaces, each ofwhich is associated with a topic-specific mail box, wherein a userqualified as to language and topic uses one of said interfaces to accessmessages in the associated topic-specific mail box.
 8. A method ofsorting and routing e-mail messages generated through a web-site orweb-sites operated by a host organization at which clients generatee-mail messages to the host organization, the method comprising: sortingsaid e-mail messages by language; and subsequently sorting said e-mailmessages by topic.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingappending meta-tags to each e-mail message identifying a language andtopic of that message, wherein said meta-tags are appended when themessage is generated and are used to perform said sorting by languageand said sorting by topic.
 10. The method of claim 8, further comprisingsending all messages generated at said web-site or web-sites to a globalmail box.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein said sorting by languagefurther comprises routing each of said e-mail messages to one of aplurality of language-specific mail boxes into which said e-mailmessages are sorted according to language.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein said sorting by topic further comprises routing each of saide-mail messages from one of said language-specific mail boxes to one ofa plurality of topic-specific mail boxes into which said e-mail messagesare sorted according to topic, each language-specific mail box beingassociated with a separate corresponding set of topic-specific mailboxes.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising accessing andresponding to said e-mail messages in each of said topic-specific mailboxes.
 14. An e-mail sorting and routing system for e-mail messagesgenerated through a web-site or web-sites operated by a hostorganization, the system comprising: means for sorting said e-mailmessages by language; and means for subsequently sorting said e-mailmessages by topic.
 15. The system of claim 14, further comprising meansfor appending meta-tags to each e-mail message identifying a languageand topic of that message, wherein said meta-tags are appended when thatmessage is generated and are used by said means for sorting by languageand said means for sorting by topic.
 16. The system of claim 14, whereinsaid means for sorting by language further comprise means for routingeach of said e-mail messages to one of a plurality of language-specificmail boxes into which said e-mail messages are sorted according tolanguage.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein said means for sorting bytopic further comprise means for routing each of said e-mail messagesfrom one of said language-specific mail boxes to one of a plurality oftopic-specific mail boxes into which said e-mail messages are sortedaccording to topic, each language-specific mail box being associatedwith a separate corresponding set of topic-specific mail boxes. 18.Computer-readable instructions recorded in a medium for storingcomputer-readable instructions, said instructions causing a computersystem to sort and route e-mail messages generated through a web-site orweb-sites operated by a host organization at which clients generatee-mail messages to the host organization, the instructions causing saidcomputer system to: sort said e-mail messages by language; andsubsequently, sort said e-mail messages by topic.
 19. The instructionsof claim 18, wherein said instructions further cause said computersystem to append meta-tags to each e-mail message identifying a languageand topic of that message, wherein said meta-tags are appended when themessage is generated and are used to perform said sorting by languageand topic.
 20. The instructions of claim 18, wherein said instructionsfurther cause said computer system to route each of said e-mail messagesto one of a plurality of language-specific mail boxes into which saide-mail messages are sorted according to language.
 21. The instructionsof claim 20, wherein said instructions further cause said computersystem to route each of said e-mail messages from each of said languagespecific mail boxes to one of a plurality of topic-specific mail boxesinto which said e-mail messages are sorted according to topic, eachlanguage-specific mail box being associated with a separatecorresponding set of topic-specific mail boxes.